I recently went one on one with Paul DePasquale, CEO of Tivoli Audio.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Paul: All roads that led me to where I am today are due to my love, work, and devotion to music. I come from a musical family, am a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and am a college graduate in audio engineering and production. What started as a service and engineering role at Tivoli Audio while I pursued my music career eventually steered me through various sales and business development roles, product development, and ultimately Chief Executive. It was not an easy road to get here, and I battled many personal and professional challenges that molded me to this point. If I had to pick one pivotal moment that was instrumental to my growth, it was when I had a personal situation that placed me at a very clear crossroads. At that time, I had to decide if following my dreams as a full-time musician was the best path for me and if there were much greater things to life than following one's dream at all costs (good and bad). I decided to focus on the blooming career that was unfolding in front of me and the rest of my life. This also led to some success with music; it all fell into place over time. As CEO, I am using all my professional and personal experiences, failures, setbacks, and challenges to operate a global business providing design-driven audio products that connect people to the universal language…MUSIC! 

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

Paul: You cannot grow and scale unless you pick apart all the things that may be holding you back. Every business has growth prevention items. It could be strategy, expenses, personnel, partnerships, etc. Identifying truly what you need and what you do not need is a huge step, which sometimes will come with painful decisions. Only once you can outline the key foundation and then where the growth potentials are, only then you can scale it. It is also important to scale modestly. If you take all your departments through the process little by little, you will have better insight into what is working and not working to adjust along the way; your strategy will usually come with obstacles and changes. It is important to keep the day-to-day work and productivity moving forward while trying to maneuver the big picture growth. If you put a substantial amount of growth or pressure on any one department, you will have a dysfunctional organization, and then you will find that all the blood, sweat, and tears have turned into more setbacks.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?

Paul: Open-minded, visionary, good sense of humor, good with communication, forward-thinking, approachable, appropriately strict with themselves, and understand emotional IQ

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Paul: Learn to be comfortable with rejection and be ok with not being comfortable. To lead, you need to believe when no one else does. You need to take vision,  make it practicable, and then turn it into something real. This takes patience and an open mind to challenge your vision and let others challenge you. When you express confidence with sophistication, your team, partners, and colleagues will all see a leader worth following. If you are unsure, close-minded, uncomfortable, and unable to express your vision, you will find growing to be hard. Keep in mind it’s about having a sense of self, taking control where others cannot, but not controlling everyone and everything. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Paul:

1. Learn to take a step back during complex/challenging moments.

2. You do not always have to have the answers. Trust in your team and colleagues.

3. Be flexible. Things will never go as you plan. Process the differences and learn how to use them effectively.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? 

Paul: In every department or team, you will need a leader. Like any band, there is the strongest link that holds it all together. You need to find that leader in every team. One that understands the big picture and can drive it through daily productivity to the team. Some staff may not always have or need the big picture, but they will need a team leader who does, and they need to respect this person’s position. So finding that champion to build and manage your department/team's goals can only work with good management. 

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding? 

Paul: Sales and marketing today have a complicated bond, which is always evolving. However, your brand is your identity; if you do not know or have that, then no sales or marketing will help you. Quality sales are important. Even the largest one-off sale will not help you in the long run if it does not align with your brand. Understanding the marketing and sales verticals your brand needs is key, and it is important to let the brand lead; do not let marketing trends change your brand. The brand comes first. If people understand your brand, then it is only a matter of if they want to buy it or not. You only have so much power over that, so stay clear on who you are, and marketing and sales will be much easier to follow. 

Also, do not try to be everything / everywhere. Think about famous musicians. Unfortunately, everyone cannot be as popular as The Beatles or Nirvana, but there are many musicians that found their path and have their fans. Same with brands. We all can't be Nike, but there is enough room for smaller/niche brands to find their unique place.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Paul: Sounds cliché, but do not judge a book by its cover. We often think this is only related to not judging others or something with only seeing it. Still, this advice teaches you to be open-minded and compassionate in all areas and that things are not always what they seem (good and bad).


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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